Aussies well placed at Funai Classic

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Australians Mark Hensby and Scott Hend took advantage of ideal
conditions to finish equal second after the opening round at the
Funai Classic PGA event at Disney World today.

Hensby and Hend joined American John Huston on eight-under-par
64, while American J.L. Lewis plundered 11 birdies to set the pace
on 62.

Defending champion Vijay Singh carded 66, while several other
Australians were well-placed, with Steve Allan on 67, Geoff Ogilvy
on 68, Rod Pampling, Stuart Appleby and Craig Parry on 69.

While Hensby has already won on the US Tour this year, and is
17th on the money list, the long-hitting Hend, at 132nd, is in
danger of losing his exempt status for next year.

His timely performance on the Magnolia course could have been
even better. He charged to nine under after 13 holes, but couldn't
quite maintain his momentum.

Pampling, meanwhile, played with a restricted swing after
suffering a back injury when he bent to tie his shoes on tournament
eve.

"It's not a bad, bad injury, but it bloody hurts," the
Queenslander said.

"I could barely walk up the stairs to the fitness trailer. I got
some treatment and had to do a bunch of exercises.

"I was worried whether I was going to be able to play, but when
I woke up this morning I was 80 per cent sure I could.

"I tried to hit three-quarter shots and I made a couple of nice
par putts to keep the round going. Thankfully there's no damage
done with three under."

Appleby, meanwhile, was only too happy to talk about a superb
par save at the fifth hole.

His ball plugged in the downslope of a bunker and he had no
chance of landing the ball on the green and stopping it near the
hole.

However, the bunker had a shallow lip, so he decided to take his
chances and try to run the ball through the sand and up onto the
green.

"I decided to knife it out of the plugged lie and it ran out to
two feet," he said. "You would have got pretty high odds on me not
getting it within 10 feet, so it was a huge bonus to walk away with
a par."

Of his overall round, he continued: "I didn't really hit it
quite as well as I would have liked, and didn't really get the ball
rolling."